A house fire resulted in the devastating death of a resident of the home. 

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The Origin

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The house was a single-level property, on a sloping block and a

large rear yard at the back. It was a complex scenario, with the
insured surviving the fire, however, his wife was trapped and sadly

passed away. The scene was quite confronting, with clear burn

patterns around the kitchen doorway, indicating that that was

where the insured’s wife was positioned at her time of death during

the fire.

 

Dealing with the immense damage to the building, and the highly

sensitive nature of the fire was definitely a difficult task for Fire

Forensics investigators, with the insured and the family returning to

the property during the investigation.

 

The lounge room was the area of origin for the fire and was completely

destroyed from floor to ceiling, with all walls, ceiling, roof cavity and

roof structures collapsing to the floor. All items within the lounge room

were severely fire damaged.

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Our Findings

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The information Fire Forensics received was that the insured’s wife was a

smoker, and was smoking at the time, whilst also receiving oxygen through

a tube, from an oxygen concentrator. The most likely scenario is that she

was smoking, and because she had pure oxygen coming out of the tube,

there was an oxygen rich environment surrounding her, causing her cigarette

to ignite, which then quickly spread to the upholstery of the couch and her

clothing.